The Diary of a CEO

A really really well written book, which takes 33 theories from startup/founder/management/marketing etc and condenses them into one read. Yes it could be a blog, but it is very useful nonetheless. Start at number 10, the first 9 are rubbish.

1. Understand your professional potential is made up of 5 elements
   1. Knowledge, What you know
   2. Skills, What you can do
   3. Network, Who you know
   4. Resources, What you have
   5. Reputation, What the world thinks of you

   Fill these in this order, and remember the first 2 can never be taken from you, the last 3 can.

2. Skin in the game
   1. Have monetary of social capital at stake to force yourself to succeed
3. Don’t disagree
   1. Don’t start a sentence with “I disagree , or You’re Wrong”. Instead, say what you have in common.
4. You don’t get to choose what you believe
5. Lean in to unknowns.
   1. don’t run from ideas that make you uncomfortable
6. Ask questions
   1. ‘Will you recycle?’ not ‘please recycle’
7. Have a positive self-story, and never compromise
   1. the most convincing sign that someone will achieve new results in the future, is new behaviour in the present
8. Habit
   1. cue → routine → reward
   2. instead of ‘stop alcohol’ , say ‘every 2nd beer is a tea’
9. Health
   1. there is no greater form of gratitude than taking care of yourself
10. Useless absurdity
    1. most absurd thing about you says everything about you
    2. eg big blue slide + ball pit in the office. having 100ft climbing wall in the gym
11. Don’t be wallpaper
    1. overusing popular phrases/CTA’s to the point the brain habituates to them + tunes them out
    2. great marketing is uncomfortable - it springs a dormant brain into a neurological frenzy
12. Piss people off
    1. make people feel something either way. indifference is the dead zone. “piss of 80%, turn on 20%”
13. Psychological moonshots - cheaper, easier + more effective to invest in perception than reality.
    1. “peak end rules”, customers judge entire experience on 1) peak and 2) end
    2. idleness aversion - why Uber show moving map while you wait. Chrome trex game
    3. uncertainty anxiety - ‘delayed’ vs ‘delayed by 20mins’
    4. operational transparency - Uber vs black cab/minicab pricing
    5. goal gradient effect - we work faster the closer we are to a goal. other examples, japan trains - cleaning staff do a ritual + wear bright outfits at each stop.
    • lift close buttons - don’t do anything, they give us the illusion of control, decrease uncertainty, make you feel safer.
    • soap makers - add menthol to give smell,
    • Mcdonalds - touch screen add interactivity, remove embarrassing long orders, psychological safety.
14. Friction can create value - comparison websites increase search times + convince you they’ve done a thorough search
15. The frame matters more than the picture
    1. vegan leather vs plastic, 90% lean vs 10% fat, partnership vs sales team, WHOOP not having a clock
16. Goldilocks effect
    1. context creates the value
17. Endowment effect - Apple Store, try before you buy
18. Win the first 5 seconds
    1. with storytelling, cater to your most uninterested customer first
19. Sweat the small stuff
    1. Kaizen - continuous improvement, 1% per day
    2. Set target of 1 idea/month per employee
20. Small miss now = big miss later
    1. Pursuit of perfection is a master of discipline not heroism
21. Outfail your competition as quickly as possible
    1. Type 1 irreversible vs Type 2 reversible decisions
    2. promote failure
       1. remove bureaucracy, allow freedom for Type 2 decisions
       2. fix the incentives
       3. promote those who fail, fire those who block ideas
       4. measure accurately
       5. share failures for learnings
22. Don’t have a Plan B.
    1. There’s no greater force of creativity, determination + commitment than a person undistracted by a Plan B.
23. Avoiding uncomfortable realities + difficult conversations is unhelpful - get to truth asap
24. “pressure is a privilege”

    Dealing with pressure:

    1. see it, speak it, embrace it, do not ignore it
    2. share it with loved ones
    3. frame it - recognise the positive role it plays
    4. use it - the increased alertness, focus, energy
25. Ask “Why will this idea fail?”
    1. Why we don’t? Optimism bias, confirmation bias, self-serving bias, sunk-cost fallacy
26. The market you sell your skills into matters more than the skills themselves
27. Embrace mortality
    1. our time + how we allocate it will determine if you succeed or fail
    2. “we don’t have to be smarter than the rest, we need to be more disciplined than the rest”
28. Who not how - what the best founders do
29. Build a cult
    1. sense of belonging
    2. shared mission
    3. inspirational leader
    4. Us vs Them mentality
30. Fire quickly, hire to raise the bar
31. People want a feeling of progression, and if we aim for perfection, we’ll fail, because perfection is so for away eg. ask every team head for weekly updates to the company
32. Be an inconsistent leader - know everything about your team so you can tailor your management style to each team member.